Dinner Plate #28

 

On this installment of self-imposed creativity, I have an attempt at making a homemade flour tortilla, some Mexican-style quinoa with veggies, sauteed Mexican vegetables, avocado, and vegan charro beans.

The idea here was that I was craving some sort of Mexican flavors, but I also wanted to use what I had. A neighbor had given me some zucchini from her garden, and I had a can of vegan charro beans and some avocado on hand. And I figured now was as good a time at any to try my hand at homemade flour tortillas.

I wanted to layer the proteins more, so I made quinoa instead of rice, and boosted the nutrition and color in the recipe I used as inspiration (from The Harvest Kitchen) by adding in a carrot when I was cooking the onion and adding some frozen peas and corn when the quinoa was nearly cooked. It was pretty good, though nothing too exciting.

The zucchini recipe felt very new. I took inspiration from a recipe from Bites of Wellness, using all green zucchini instead of zucchini and yellow squash. I had half a yellow bell pepper and half a red onion in the fridge, so they filled out the rest. Although I think this turned out to steam more than saute--a lot of water came off that zucchini--it was still quite delicious.

Though my flour tortilla looks weird, and I think I didn't have the skillet hot enough when I cooked it, I have the sense that I could probably do a better job next time and it would be worth trying to do. So we'll see. I also think flour tortillas are easy to buy and delicious enough that way, so had I gone to the store, I would have bought them without any qualms.

But we live and we learn and sometimes, that's what matters. I had fun! I hope you did, too.